Nazi Rocket Scientist Collaborated with Far Right Cult Leader, Says New Book on Nazi War Criminals

A Nazi rocket scientist, provided entry into this country under a program known as Operation Paperclip, and who later became a central figure in the American space program, had been a collaborator with extremist former Presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche, according to a recently published book on Nazi war criminals in the U.S.

The book identifies the late Dr. Krafft Ehricke, who worked at one time at the Dora-Nordhausen slave labor rocket factory complex during the Holocaust, as having been an editor and contributor for nearly five years of Fusion Magazine, a publication of the Fusion Energy Foundation. LaRouche has been identified in a recent deposition as director of the Foundation.

The editor of Fusion Magazine, Marge Hecht, confirmed in an interview yesterday that Ehricke had been a contributor to the publication and had, among other articles, written about attempts to colonize the moon. She praised his work and scientific research and said she doubted whether Ehricke had worked at any time at the Dora-Nordhausen factory during World War II.

The disclosure of the relationship between Ehricke and LaRouche is contained in the publication, “The Basic Handbook, Nazi War Criminals in America: Facts … Action” (Highgate House, N.Y.) by Charles Allen, Jr., an authority on Nazi war criminals in America. Allen is a frequent contributor to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Hecht dismissed Allen’s disclosures as having no factual basis.

In a 1984 interview with Allen, Ehricke admitted that he had written, lectured and headed symposia as well as served on the editorial board of Fusion. The magazine, according to Allen, “combines a scientific pretense with shrill demands for an immediate change over to a nuclear powered economy, a ‘star wars’ beam weaponry first strike against the Soviet Union and a far right ideology.”

Ehricke declined to comment on LaRouche’s connections with extreme rightwing groups in the U.S., including the Liberty Lobby, Allen wrote. Nor would he comment on attacks led by LaRouche on the U.S. Justice Department’s efforts to deport Nazi war criminals living in the U.S. “I don’t care about politics,” said Ehricke. The editors of Fusion do “good work.”

Ehricke came to the U.S. in 1947, worked in Werner von Braun’s “German rocket team” until 1952 when he entered military industrial corporations. He later went on to work for aerospace firms such as Bell Aircraft, General Dynamics, Rock-well International and Space Global, according to Allen. He died in December, 1984.

Ehricke played a prominent role in Fusion Magazine’s activities, from 1980 until his death. LaRouche eulogized the former rocket scientist at the June 15, 1985 “Krafft Ehricke Memorial Meeting” in Virginia as “our beloved and most accomplished friend.” Another LaRouche publication, New Solidarity, acclaimed “two prestigious awards in space science … won by members of the Fusion Energy Foundation,” singling out the 1984 Goddard Medal given to Ehricke by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

According to Allen, both LaRouche and Ehricke had joined together in calling for an end to the activities of the Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations, the unit formed in 1979 with the responsibility of prosecuting and deporting suspected Nazi war criminals living in the U.S. On July 1, 1985, New Solidarity demanded that “treason charges” be “immediately brought against three individuals guilty of KGB treason.” The publication added, “For such traitors in time of war, the penalty could reasonably be death.”

The three “KGB agents” named in the publication were Neal Sher, director of the OSI; former Congresswoman and currently Brooklyn District Attorney Elizabeth Holtzman; and Charles Allen, author of The Basic Handbook. Holtzman was instrumental while in Congress with pursuing the establishment of the OSI.